Menu
  • News
  • About and Contact
    • About
    • Contact
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • Email updates
    • RSS feed
    • Voices from our Research
  • Events
    • Upcoming
    • Past Events (since 2015)
    • Trade for Change Workshops
    • Film screenings
    • Facebook events
  • Writing and Media
    • Writing
    • Book
    • Media
    • What Moves Us

Voices

The following represent a random sampling of voices from those activists and organizers who participated in our research project. To see more, refresh this page.  Use the tag cloud to the right to navigate by theme.

Anarchism and radical social change

I12

Eventually I came to [anarchism]... and a complete rejection of the entire system and seeing its destruction as the only possible solution. It didn't seem like it was hierarchical in any way. It didn't seem to be intimidating in the sense that you had to prove yourself to be a part of it or climb any kind of ranks or whatever, or find a place to be. You were just an individual making your own decisions and individual actions for what you saw as a potential for change.

State violence and movement strategy

I30

I think if you've got enough people you can take a stand in any way to prevent stuff. But let's face it, the state has all the firepower, all the guns, and all it takes is an excuse and they'll use it….So when [the state] move[s] in they have every right in their mind to come in and surround and corner people...but if you defend yourself, if you resist that then you're the aggressor.

Moving past guilt

I25

I think that's a bigger barrier, getting past the idea of guilt and that's one that I personally face a lot is getting past the idea of, ‘oh, I feel I've done enough today because I did this and this so I don't feel guilty anymore.’ It shouldn't be about that, it should be about working towards a real vision that's clearly articulated and you can measure your progress towards that rather than just measuring your progress in terms of how good you feel about yourself.

Imagining the future together

I21

I'm sitting on this side of the river saying ‘I'm happy to cross over with you,’ I don't know what the bridge looks like, but I think we have to sustain this bank of the river so that it doesn't collapse on our way to that one. Because I do not have sufficient radical imagination to know how we're going to get from here to what I imagine for the future, I don't have that. I don't think that gives me an excuse not to keep on keeping on because I think the struggle against slavery in the United States took four hundred years. I've been working for about forty and not consistently….I'm saddened that I don't have the imagination to understand [how] we're going to get from a and b but I think we need to discuss how we're going to get from a to b together because there are smarter people than me.

Other ways of knowing and doing

I30

We [First Nations communities] were the original communists without the authoritarianism, really, truly. There's ways we have of dealing with stuff that I think is directly applicable to all the stuff we're talking about. The idea of a council, of people doing things as a collective where they have to come to a consensus and come to agreement….the community decides and that's the difference between a collective model and a hierarchical, pyramidal way of doing things. It's done in a circle not a pyramid.

Reconsidering the end goals

I31

We need to change the end goal. Is the end goal about economic growth and increasing wealth or is the end goal...human well-being and quality of life? There is a really rich discourse around those things - gross national happiness and genuine progress indicators and those sorts of things. It's not enough just to do the academic research and come up with these ideas, there has to be direct correlations within the politics.

Winning over the long haul

I14

What does winning look like? At some point it's a definitive break from capitalism. I don't know...how long that process is. After that break it's not [over], socialism, or anarchism, or whatever we want to call this new utopia we're creating is going to take a really, really long time to develop. Humans need to become entirely re-socialized, we need to start looking at things in very different ways. That's a really long process.

Plugging into radical politics

I15

Discussion often degenerates very quickly and is not about trying to find...strategic solutions to problems but rather is about getting defensive and wanting to yell about why your strategy is the best and I don't want to engage in that kind of debate. I don't really have any time for it because I think that our strategy right now should be to be talking to people about what's fucked about the system that we live in….[How] are you going to plug people into radical political movements? We're at a point where there's not a lot to plug people into...that's meaningful, that's consistent, that's going to enact actual social change. What we need to be doing is building people’s understanding of why the system that we're living under is the root of the problems that we're facing.

Building solidarity, not conflict

I3

I do believe that non-violent action is more effective as a strategy because the object is to build solidarity rather than conflict and I feel that that is ultimately what we're fighting for. Certainly I feel that non-violent action is more effective just by the very nature of what it is. It's less alienating to people who are largely ignorant of the issues that are being confronted. That it's less intimidating and therefore approachable and it's easier to communicate with people through it.

Crisis and opportunity

I12

I think along with the situation looking grim it's also maybe inspiring for some people who have already become politicized through some sort of radical resistance. I've often had the conversation with people who will say that they can't wait for the situation to get worse. As things become more desperate more people tend to seek other options for change and maybe they're seeing current vehicles for change as just not even an option anymore. Seeing other places in the world like Italy, the UK, Tunisia, Nigeria having large...uprising[s is]...inspiring.

Share this:

  • Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

Available now!

What Moves Us: The Lives and Times of the Radical Imagination

Themes

WordPress database error: [You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MariaDB server version for the right syntax to use near '-testimonial-category ON posts.ID = tr_easy-testimonial-category.object_ID I...' at line 3]
SELECT DISTINCT tt2.term_id AS tag_id FROM wp_posts as posts INNER JOIN wp_term_relationships as tr2 ON posts.ID = tr2.object_ID INNER JOIN wp_term_taxonomy as tt2 ON tr2.term_taxonomy_id = tt2.term_taxonomy_id INNER JOIN wp_term_relationships as tr_easy-testimonial-category ON posts.ID = tr_easy-testimonial-category.object_ID INNER JOIN wp_term_taxonomy as tt_easy-testimonial-category ON tr_easy-testimonial-category.term_taxonomy_id = tt_easy-testimonial-category.term_taxonomy_id WHERE posts.post_status = 'publish' AND tt2.taxonomy = 'easy-testimonial-category' AND tt_easy-testimonial-category.taxonomy = 'easy-testimonial-category' AND tt_easy-testimonial-category.term_id IN (129,174,278,163,40,192,169,289,286,88,109,134,184,288,157,279,187,6,173,200,249,209,229,159,178,101,72,183,25,287,198,180,281,156,108,280,179,196,190,176,275,199,244,197,298,285,170,277,228,276,283,162,64,185,194,189,217,274,61,293,202,301,158,290,297,111,291,195,63,69,207,182,292,295,299,8,188,284,24,296,302,193,201,191,177,282,300,172,140,294)

Zapatistas resistance protest sectarianism burnout globalization family youth strategy reproduction repression oppressions Industrial society the state insecurity education isolation imagination intersectionality police fear solidarity violence economics crisis organizing history hope communication identity marginalization capitalism futures movements tactics radicalism power outreach success housing democracy failure black bloc poverty climate winning privilege women work patriarchy class activism institutions barriers resources unions equity collapse electoral politics colonialism money ideology prisons technology ecology community people of colour corporations leadership alter-globalization alienation struggle revolution wealth security state anger control food relationships cooperatives anarchism Communism reform memory Canada Indigenous alternatives immigration political parties labour movement

Follow Us!

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on SoundcloudFollow Us on RSSFollow Us on Subscribe for email updates

Radical Imagination

Copyright 2026


I am one theme by SKTThemes.

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.